Freddie Hubbard: On Fire: Live At The Blue Morocco

Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (1938 -2008) began his professional jazz journey in 1960 as a full-blooded hard bopper, recording his first album in that year for Blue Note Records, Open Sesame. Much of the ensuing decade saw him in several Blue Note outings under his own name and as a side man. He also recorded sets for Atlantic Records and Impulse!. His output ran at about two albums a year through the 1960s.

The 1970s saw Hubbard rise from a rising star to a top-tier jazz artist when he joined forces with Creed Taylor's CTI Records, resulting in a string of some of the best recordings of his career: Red Clay (1970), Straight Life (1971), First Light (1970) and Sky Dive (1973). From there he moved on to Columbia Records and released a series of terrific albums, beginning with High Energy (1975).

High energy is a good tag for Hubbard. He played the horn hard, in a firebrand mode in large part—though he had his gentler moments; Paul McCartney's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" from the First Light album comes to mind.

On Fire: Live From The Blue Morocco finds Hubbard fronting a killer quintet in 1967 at the Bronx nightclub, toward the end of his initial Blue Note Records run and just before he started his stint recording for CTI. Another recording that had been sitting in a closet—or someplace like it—since it was taped, it comes at us in 2025 in all its brash and fiery glory. Hubbard played in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers from 1961 to 1965. He came out of that school well-educated. He made hard bop jazz at its finest, documented here with a batch of mostly extended pieces in which he and his cohorts did their best to blow the roof off the place.

Saxophonist Bennie Maupin, not too far from his participation in Miles Davis' 1969 Bitches Brew sessions for Columbia Records, joins the leader in the front line. His tone is dark and woody. He is a fine foil for the fierce Hubbard, his tenor tone comparatively restrained and pensive. Kenny Barron held down the piano chair with his characteristic aplomb, and bassist Herbie Lewis and drummer Freddie Waits rounded out the rhythm section.

"Crisis" opens CD 1. Like the rest of the set, at 19 minutes, it gives everyone a chance to stretch out. CD 2 opens with a high-octane take on "ByeBye Blackbird." The beginning has Hubbard attacking the melody straight on, leading into rambling variations on the theme, clocking in at nearly 24 minutes. And the energy never tapers off. That is the template for two CDs of music.

Freddie Hubbard and his working band of the time laid down a sound—now, finally, seeing the light of day—that can be put in the category of his finest albums. Those folks who paid to see the show got their money's worth.

And since this is a recording from 1967, the sound quality should be brought up: somewhere between very good and excellent, leaning toward the latter.

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